I am a king and a lover. | I am king and a lover

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by Giovanni Battista Casti (1724 - 1803)

Translation © by Andrew Schneider

Io re sono e sono amante

Language: Italian (Italiano)

Our translations: ENG

Io re sono e sono amante.    
Il mio amor è un brutto affanno,
il mio regno è un bel malanno,
ma la taglia è peggio ancor.
Quando volgo il mio pensiero
alla mia crudel Lisetta,
par che irato amor mi metta
mille diavoli nel cor.
Ch'io son re poi mi rammento,
e dai stimoli di gloria
cose a far degne d'istoria
infiammar mi sento allor.
Ma la solita paura
smorza amor, la gloria oscura,
e aver parmi sulla groppa
il sicario che m'accoppa
e con qualche botta ria
mi risana in sempiterno
dall'eroïca pazzia
della gloria e dell'amor.

Text Authorship:

by Giovanni Battista Casti (1724 - 1803) [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

by Giovanni Paisiello (1740 - 1816), "Io re sono e sono amante", 1784, first performed 1784, from opera Il re Teodoro in Venezia, no. 3 [sung text not yet checked]

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

ENG English (Andrew Schneider) , "I am a king and a lover.", copyright © 2018, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this page: Andrew Schneider [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2018-06-05
Line count: 20
Word count: 98

I am a king and a lover.

Language: English after the Italian (Italiano)

I am king and a lover.
My love is a cruel torment,
my kingdom a great misfortune,
but my rewards are even worse.
When I turn my thoughts to my cruel Lisetta,
Love seems to place within my heart
one thousand devils.
I remember then that I am king,
and glory stimulates me
and inflames my inner being to accomplish
doughty, historic deeds.
But my accustomed fear 
extinguishes love and obscures glory,
and, feeling as I do on my shoulders
a hitman just waiting to bump me off,
with a low blow I am cured forever and ever
of the insane heroics of glory and love.

Text Authorship:

Translation from Italian (Italiano) to English copyright © 2018 by Andrew Schneider, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you may ask the copyright-holder(s) directly or ask us; we are authorized to grant permission on their behalf. Please provide the translator's name when contacting us.
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Based on:

a text in Italian (Italiano) by Giovanni Battista Casti (1724 - 1803)
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2018-06-05
Line count: 17
Word count: 106